For Middleboro family of Brockton school employee, justice delayed

Wednesday

Sep 12, 2018 at 4:52 PMSep 21, 2018 at 7:54 AM

The Lynn man involved in the crash that killed Deborah Carney was expected to plead guilty Wednesday before a procedural hiccup.

FALMOUTH — About a dozen family members of Deborah Carney traveled from Middleboro to Falmouth District Court to seek justice Wednesday, crossing the Bourne Bridge and driving past the very spot Carney was killed last summer.

They’ll have to make the trip again next week.

A procedural hiccup delayed what was expected to be a guilty plea from Jose Portillo, the Lynn man driving the tractor trailer that killed Carney — a longtime Brockton schools employee — in a violent car crash last July. Carney’s husband, Leo, was also expected to deliver a statement in front of Portillo and his family members.

The next court date is set for Monday, the district attorney’s office said.

The continuation arose after an issue in properly certifying — or identifying — Portillo as the defendant. A displeased judge James McGovern told attorneys in a particularly loud sidebar that “the court cannot accept a plea until it’s satisfied he is who he says he is.”

Portillo, a native of El Salvador who became a U.S. citizen in 2010, was never fingerprinted after the fatal crash — which led to Wednesday’s confusion, his attorney Drew Segadelli said.

Portillo was expected to plead guilty by admission of facts Wednesday and accept a sentence that included five years probation and suspended driver’s license for 15 years.

Outside the courtroom, Segadelli told The Enterprise there were “no excuses” for Portillo.

“But for his actions (that day), this woman wouldn’t have lost her life,” Segadelli said. “It’s a consequence of his actions. But it was a mishap, or a quote-unquote accident. That’s what it is.”

Segadelli also admitted Portillo was distracted "to a degree," and that Portillo “not getting enough sleep” may have contributed to the crash. He said Portillo awoke at 2 a.m. that day to pick up a load of furniture in his truck.

The crash occurred at about 4 p.m.

The Carney family did not speak to the media Wednesday, but Leo Carney told The Enterprise in a Monday interview that he did not wish to see Portillo face jail time.

“I just want to move forward,” Leo Carney said. “I can’t see this guy waking up that morning and saying he was going to kill somebody ... Putting him in jail feels senseless. It’s not going to help me move forward.”

Portillo’s charge of vehicular manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of two-and-a-half years.

Along with Leo Carney, three family members who were involved in the car crash were also present at the courthouse Wednesday. That included 17-year-old Paige Silvestro (Deborah Carney’s granddaughter), who suffered a traumatic brain injury in the crash and now awaits her fourth brain surgery next month.

Deborah Carney’s daughter, Tracy, and other granddaughter, Kendal, were also in the vehicle, as well as Tracy’s mother-in-law.

They were returning to Middleboro from a day trip on the Cape when the accident occurred, the family said. Their Honda CR-V hit traffic just before the rotary that precedes the Bourne Bridge when it was struck from behind by Portillo’s tractor trailer.

Portillo’s tractor trailer was traveling 62 miles per hour at the time of the crash, Leo Carney said.

It was captured on surveillance footage.

Portillo cooperated with police after the crash, Segadelli said, giving blood and taking a breathalyzer test. He was not arrested that day, and only charged three months later after a clerk’s hearing.

The plea deal, Segadelli said, was hopefully a way to find a disposition that satisfied everyone’s concerns.

“Sometimes you have cases where everybody’s a victim,” he said, “and that’s this case."

Portillo was expected to appear before Falmouth District Court Wednesday morning, but the case was repeatedly pushed forward. At one point, the Carney family filed into the small courtroom -- filling almost one half of the public seats — only to file out minutes later when court was recessed.

After an extensive sidebar with Segadelli and assistant district attorney Dan Higgins in the afternoon, McGovern continued the case for another day. Speaking loudly, he could be heard saying that "no one has verified" Portillo's identity for the court.

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